Why You Don't Hear Back from Contractors

This is written for Robert, Josh, Brent, Wendy, Eric, Steve, Lisa, and everyone else we have not gotten back to.  I am terribly sorry and I would very much love to work with all of you and meet with you if I could. I wrote this for you guys, probably to remove some of my guilt, but mainly to apologize.  This wasn't supposed to happen.


First of all, I know all of you work your asses off.  Everyone works hard and usually to their limit.  I acknowledge that and just want to clarify that I am NOT writing this because I feel sorry for myself, to brag about how busy we are, or to vent.  Well, maybe a little venting. My goal here is to confess how I became a flaky contractor (with calls/emails, not with the project itself), while it goes against everything I believe in and while I hate myself for it.

When we first started over 8 years ago, I often wondered how contractors were so notorious for being flakes.  I was on a mission to be fair, honest, and build a solid reputation.  It was obvious that part of being solid meant that emails and voice mails had to be responded right away, if not, within 24 hours.  I swore to stay on top of corresponding with customers. Seriously, how hard can it be? It only takes a minute or two to get back to someone, right?

The Flaking Begins
We had a pretty good track record until "Yelp" came along earlier this year. Yelp has changed our lives for better and for worse. Yelp brings in about 30% of our existing business.  Yelp callers and emails have been extremely time consuming and full of dead ends.  We get 9 out of 10 projects through referrals from past clients, while we might get 1 project out of 20 calls from Yelp. I have a screening process that I will save for another blog entry.  Yelp also invites unwanted solicitors - usually Search Engine Optimization telemarketers, to debris hauling, etc.  I will let the phone go to voice mail when I am working at a job site or when I am in a meeting. If we are in the middle of your project and my phone identifies the caller, I will take your call if I am able to. Remember, we are a small company and all of us do EVERYTHING.  I am still out there picking up materials, making cut lists, installing on site, etc. After a 10-12 hour work day, I am then available to meet with clients, draw/design, create contracts/bid, and then get to my outstanding messages.

The Snap Shot Case Study
Looking at my phone, I get 30 calls on a slow day (all work related) and maybe 50+ calls on a busy day. Looking at my emails, yesterday I received 37 emails and the day before 45 (all work related).

Our current projects and their locations as of today:
Laguna Beach - kitchen, 4 bathrooms, 3 closets installation
Anaheim Hills - kitchen installation
Long Beach - custom kitchen
Alta Dena - custom wall unit
Redondo Beach - custom wall unit and end table
Studio City - custom valance for motorized window blinds/shades

Bids in process as of today - 14 bids


Drawings to do - 3 drawings

Outstanding Balances to collect - qty 5

How our days are naturally prioritized
The greatest challenge for our business is scheduling.  4 out of the 6 projects listed above have rushed us to build/install, but then postponed the project for a good reason.  Here is a quick recap and chain of events:

Laguna Beach - We were scheduled to start installation 2 months ago, but didn't start until the 2 weeks ago.  We were waiting for the drywall and painting to be finished.  We completed 5 straight days but had to stop installation because wall tiles were not finished yet in all 4 bathrooms.

Anaheim Hills - The project was postponed one week.  We got the word from the Laguna Beach project to start the same day we were going to start this project.  So are entire team went to Anaheim Hills on a Saturday and installed an entire kitchen in one long day (minus handles and a custom pantry), just so we can start Laguna on Monday. We were planning to go back to Anaheim Hills this week to finish, but that got postponed until next week because the interior is still being painted.

Studio City - We were supposed to build and install this week, but the owner postponed for another week.

Long Beach - We are waiting for the new floor to go in so we can install the toe kicks in the custom kitchen we built/installed.  The poor owner got a bad batch of hardwood flooring (a couple of times) and then decided to switch to another type/brand of floor.  This has been a 3 month delay and a 3 month headache for the owner and his family.  I feel bad for them.

We made a really big effort to finish what needed to be done in Laguna so we can get to Anaheim Hills and Studio City this week. Working in Laguna requires all of us to be up at 5a.m. and drive 60 miles to work on a home that is on top of a hill with absolutely no parking in front of the house (parking is scarce and 1/4 mile away at times). We were all exhausted, but finished all that we could so we can tend to these other projects. Neither project was ready for us to return which meant that there was no work the next day... unless I come up with one. So I did...

Redondo Beach -  These clients have been calling/emailing and ready to send us money to start on their wall unit and end table. So that night I met with them for a final revision. I was up until 1:30am drawing the revisions. We got the approval to start the next morning and we started building.  We barely managed to avoid any down time.

Alta Dena - The day we were planning to finish here, the Santa Ana winds knocked the electricity out of the property's area and the general contractor told us not to come.  On top of that, school was cancelled for Larry's kids so Larry was out for the day.

Generally, all projects coincidentally want to start on the same day and almost every project has to be unpredictably rescheduled (usually waiting for drywall or painting to be done, sometimes tiling or flooring).  This happened to be a good week too, even with all the power outages from the Santa Ana winds. Scheduling has always been like this, right from the first day we started.  I am sure it is like this for all contractors.

You Can't Plan Shit
I do not know how other businesses are, but I assume that everyone goes through the same thing.  Everyday is full of surprises and you can't plan shit.  This keeps us in "emergency mode" at all times and removes any chance for us to take control of our time. There is always a fire to put out and there is always someone's hand that needs to be held. The bottom line is that our priority is honoring our agreement. When we are hired, we meet our deadlines. We show up on time.  We follow through and take ownership of our work.  We keep our end of the deal and we will exceed your expectations.  It is my fault that existing projects take up so much of my attention, that I can not find the time to get back to everyone else.  I hope soon I can figure out how to balance this act, but for now, I am just behind.  I am behind on bids, drawings, billing completed projects, and getting back to all of my emails/messages.  There are some people I will never get back to and it is usually by accident. When we first started, we had no idea what we were signing up for.  I had no idea that there was no way for me to unplug. I would go to sleep thinking about cabinets, wake up thinking about cabinets and after all these years, I am still in love with what I do.

Do not take it personal
Looking at the beginning of these six projects, we put in very little work to get these projects. I mean, we put in serious time and effort perfecting the details of the project, even to get it started, but we were not dealing with customers who were shopping for the best deal, trying to low ball our bid, but instead ready to give us a deposit and start working on their projects.  What I am about to say is very sad, but true.  The key word is "deposit" and some clients are ready to go, while others need to do more research (which is totally fine and normal).  The customers who have a serious deadline, know what they want, forcing a deposit on to us, and persistently call/email us are the projects we are working on right now, and are usually the projects we are working on year round.  These clients alone force me to work 70+ hours a week.  I have met many of you on late nights and weekends. I have exchanged phone calls and text messages with you late into the night.  We are busy.  We are extremely grateful to be busy.  Unfortunately, this comes with a price.  I have been offending and disappointing more people this year than ever.  I hope it is due to the high volume of calls and chances are, I am not going to connect with a tiny percentage of you that will lead to a train wreck.  This is something I am working on and I have learned to not say certain things.

Now, the list of names that I wrote this for, all these factors do not necessarily apply to you. I have met all of you at least one time and I am excited about all of your projects. It is not that I do not appreciate your business, even though I know we are not acting like it.  It is more that we have not figured out the best way to correspond to everyone in a timely manner.  There happens to be some aggressively demanding customers forcing their way, cutting in front of you, barking louder, with money in their hands that we can't help but to tend to first.

I can't speak for all contractors, but this is why we have trouble calling everyone back. I am working on this problem, but I just ask for people not to take it personal. I wanted to write this for the list of names mentioned above, thinking it would be faster to explain to all of you at one time and that maybe I will learn something about myself or feel better if I got this all out of my system.  I must admit, I do not feel any better and I did not learn anything new.  Please accept my apology.  I am sorry.

I am all ears for any suggestions.